Griffin in Derby to offer skin cancer screenings

DERBY - Griffin Hospital is raising skin cancer awareness and helping protect individuals with a series of free skin cancer screenings.

The screenings will be held from 4-7 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital, 350 Seymour Ave.

To reserve a screening appointment, call 203-732-1280.

According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is the most common of all cancers. 

It accounts for nearly half of all cancers in the United States with more than 3.5 million cases of basal and squamous cell skin cancer diagnoses each year. Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, will account for more than 76,600 cases of skin cancer in 2013.

Risk factors for non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancers include:

·        Unprotected and/or excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation (sunlight or tanning booths)

·        Pale skin (easily sunburned, doesn’t tan much or at all, natural red or blond hair)

·        Occupational exposures to coal tar, pitch, creosote, arsenic compounds, or radium

·        You or other members of your family have had skin cancers

·        Multiple or unusual moles

·        Severe sunburns in the past 

Skin cancer can be found and treated early by looking for these symptoms:

·        Any change on your skin, especially in the size or color of a mole, growth, or spot, or a new growth (even if it has no color)

·        Scaliness, oozing, bleeding, or a change in the way a bump or nodule looks

·        The spread of pigmentation (color) beyond its border, such as dark coloring that spreads past the edge of a mole or mark

·        A change in sensation, such as itchiness, tenderness, or pain

Some symptoms are not as noticeable, so skin cancer screenings are advised. If you have any of these symptoms, call you doctor immediately or visit griffinhealth.org to find a local dermatologist.

This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.